The Business	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2012
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
The Business	Glowpoint, Inc. (“Glowpoint” or “we” or “us” or the “Company”) is a provider of cloud and managed visual communication services. Our services, delivered via our cloud-based OpenVideo® platform (as discussed in further detail below), are securely accessible via any network (private or public) and are technology-agnostic. The Company delivers services to more than 600 different enterprises in over 68 countries supporting thousands of video endpoints, immersive telepresence rooms, and infrastructure for business-quality, real-time, two-way visual communications. On October 1, 2012, the Company completed the acquisition of privately held Affinity VideoNet, Inc. ("Affinity"), a provider of public videoconferencing rooms and managed videoconferencing services to professional service organizations globally (as discussed in Note 3). Glowpoint's core value proposition for customers includes the enablement of integration of their video deployment into the unified communications environment, allowing wide adoption and usage of video communications, increasing ROI and lowering the total cost of ownership. With its multi-tenant infrastructure in the cloud, Glowpoint provides an alternative to capital-intensive, premise-based infrastructure, which customers traditionally have had to purchase for the video environment to function, as well as the tools and services to enable wide adoption of video communications throughout their business. Glowpoint is a provider of managed video and global video exchange services that provide businesses and service providers a way to link together their “islands of video” across third party private networks and enable organizations to drive adoption. Glowpoint, a Delaware corporation, was formed in May 2000. The Company operates in one segment and therefore segment information is not presented. Glowpoint Services and Features Traditionally, video has presented challenges by presenting a complex maze of systems and networks that must be navigated through and closely managed. Although most of the business-quality video systems today are “standards-based,” there are inherent interoperability problems between different vendors' video equipment, resulting in communication islands. Glowpoint's suite of cloud and managed video services can be accessed and utilized by customers regardless of the technology and network they are using. Customers who purchase a Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, LifeSize (Logitech) or StarLeaf system or use any other third-party video communications software, may all take advantage of the Glowpoint OpenVideo® cloud regardless of their choice of network. Glowpoint's core services are offered as part of OpenVideo® to generate monthly recurring revenue for the Company. OpenVideo® is a cloud platform that offers telepresence, video and unified communications and collaboration users a way to meet and communicate across the varying hardware/software platforms and carrier networks in a secure and seamless fashion. OpenVideo® combines years of best practices, experience and technology development into a video collaboration platform that provides instant connectivity, self-serve and managed help desk resources, and the ease of use that makes video collaboration seamless and effortless. Beyond the technology and applications, OpenVideo® is built around security protocols to ensure that enterprises and organizations of any size can communicate to any other desired video users in a secure, high-quality and reliable fashion. Glowpoint's services are categorized as follows: Monitoring & Management Services and Collaboration Services (“Managed Services Combined”) We provide end-to-end cloud and managed services for telepresence, conference room, desktop, mobile solutions, and video infrastructure. We have a team of video experts utilizing the latest in remote management technologies. These engineering and operational customer support resources operate out of our four Video Network Operations Centers (VNOCs) located in the United States, in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. These VNOC facilities provide global 24/7 support to our network and managed service customers, including our wholesale branded partners' customers. The primary functions of these operational resources located in these centers are customer service, conference production, network operation monitoring and remediation, and help desk technical support. The Company also maintains Point-of Presence (POP) locations that house the technology and infrastructure along with the servers and database warehousing for the OpenVideo platform and support systems of the business. There are currently three POPs, two of which are located in the United States (Newark, New Jersey and Chicago, Illinois) and one in the United Kingdom (London), with additional POPs planned as needed. These carrier-neutral data centers are co-location facilities where network equipment that serves our video infrastructure is housed and acts as shared or dedicated infrastructure for our business customers. The POPs provide power redundancy and UPS (uninterrupted Power Supply) systems, which are constantly monitored and maintained. They also have physical security, flood controls, fire detection and suppression systems and are structurally designed for protection from earthquakes. Network Services In order to provide customers with access to the OpenVideo® cloud, Glowpoint maintains a dedicated video overlay network. We have partnered with Tier 1 MPLS providers to provide a global access footprint with flexible options to consume our suite of OpenVideo® services. Our OpenVideo® cloud is also connected to the Equinix Ethernet Carrier Exchange to provide native Layer 2 Ethernet services to enterprise customers. Glowpoint leverages the last mile and network connectivity of carriers and provides an option for businesses to purchase a full overlay network for their video only needs. The network bandwidth that we provide for these dedicated overlay networks ranges from 1.5MBps to 1GBps. As a result of this, our network services business carries variable costs associated with the purchasing and reselling of this connectivity. With our network services, we provide customers with the flexibility to either source the entire network from a single provider, maintain existing network and extend a logical connection to the OpenVideo® cloud or bring bandwidth to OpenVideo® datacenters. Although a declining component of our revenue stream, we believe that network services will continue to be an integral part of our revenue mix in the future, driven by new connectivity needs to connect and peer with Glowpoint's OpenVideo® cloud. However, Glowpoint does not consider this a core driver or measurement of its market share in the cloud and managed video service industry. Affinity Public Video Suites Affinity public video suites provide remote access to video communication services for everyday business meetings and events. Virtually all of Affinity's services are based on commonly used architecture that integrates traditional video technology with real-time, proprietary interactive web tools for scheduling and managing a customer's meeting experience. Our primary service includes scheduling and management of a highly orchestrated business-class meeting for users wishing to rent video conference centers across the world for a professional meeting experience. As part of the extended offering beyond the physical office suite, we also enable participants who elect to use a mobile device to join a video conference from anywhere in the world through the Affinity Anywhere service. These services are sold to businesses in various markets as well as to resellers of communications services, through direct and indirect sales channels. The services are largely usage-based, which generally means that our customers only pay for the services that they use. We also offer our customers monthly subscription rates based on a fixed number of concurrent users. In addition, through our distribution partners, we may also offer our services on a software license basis. Professional and Other Services We have bundled certain components of our managed services to offer video communication solutions for broadcast/media content acquisition and event services. Customers have used our managed video services during events to cost-effectively acquire video content for broadcasters, cable companies and other media enterprises, especially in the sports, news and entertainment industries. While it includes our core managed video services, IP-based broadcasting and event services require more project management and dedicated operational and engineering personnel than our standard subscription services. Rather than using an expensive satellite feed, companies can acquire broadcast-quality standard or high definition footage at a fraction of the cost from Glowpoint over a dedicated IP connection. In 2007, we launched a High Definition (HD) content acquisition solution that we branded TeamCamHD and RemoteCamHD. This offering provides two-way HD video communication for content acquisition from remote locations. Glowpoint now provides a full suite of HD solutions for the broadcast, entertainment and media industry and is considered a high-quality alternative to the traditional means of acquiring content in many applications, including interviews and even full motion video.

Glowpoint, Inc. (“Glowpoint” or “we” or “us” or the “Company”) is a provider of cloud and managed visual communication services. Our services, delivered via our cloud-based OpenVideo® platform (as discussed in further detail below), are securely accessible via any network (private or public) and are technology-agnostic. The Company delivers services to more than 600 different enterprises in over 68 countries supporting thousands of video endpoints, immersive telepresence rooms, and infrastructure for business-quality, real-time, two-way visual communications. On October 1, 2012, the Company completed the acquisition of privately held Affinity VideoNet, Inc. ("Affinity"), a provider of public videoconferencing rooms and managed videoconferencing services to professional service organizations globally (as discussed in Note 3).

Glowpoint's core value proposition for customers includes the enablement of integration of their video deployment into the unified communications environment, allowing wide adoption and usage of video communications, increasing ROI and lowering the total cost of ownership. With its multi-tenant infrastructure in the cloud, Glowpoint provides an alternative to capital-intensive, premise-based infrastructure, which customers traditionally have had to purchase for the video environment to function, as well as the tools and services to enable wide adoption of video communications throughout their business. Glowpoint is a provider of managed video and global video exchange services that provide businesses and service providers a way to link together their “islands of video” across third party private networks and enable organizations to drive adoption.

Glowpoint, a Delaware corporation, was formed in May 2000. The Company operates in one segment and therefore segment information is not presented.

Glowpoint Services and Features

Traditionally, video has presented challenges by presenting a complex maze of systems and networks that must be navigated through and closely managed. Although most of the business-quality video systems today are “standards-based,” there are inherent interoperability problems between different vendors' video equipment, resulting in communication islands. Glowpoint's suite of cloud and managed video services can be accessed and utilized by customers regardless of the technology and network they are using. Customers who purchase a Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, LifeSize (Logitech) or StarLeaf system or use any other third-party video communications software, may all take advantage of the Glowpoint OpenVideo® cloud regardless of their choice of network. Glowpoint's core services are offered as part of OpenVideo® to generate monthly recurring revenue for the Company.

OpenVideo® is a cloud platform that offers telepresence, video and unified communications and collaboration users a way to meet and communicate across the varying hardware/software platforms and carrier networks in a secure and seamless fashion. OpenVideo® combines years of best practices, experience and technology development into a video collaboration platform that provides instant connectivity, self-serve and managed help desk resources, and the ease of use that makes video collaboration seamless and effortless. Beyond the technology and applications, OpenVideo® is built around security protocols to ensure that enterprises and organizations of any size can communicate to any other desired video users in a secure, high-quality and reliable fashion.

Glowpoint's services are categorized as follows:

Monitoring & Management Services and Collaboration Services (“Managed Services Combined”)

We provide end-to-end cloud and managed services for telepresence, conference room, desktop, mobile solutions, and video infrastructure. We have a team of video experts utilizing the latest in remote management technologies. These engineering and operational customer support resources operate out of our four Video Network Operations Centers (VNOCs) located in the United States, in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. These VNOC facilities provide global 24/7 support to our network and managed service customers, including our wholesale branded partners' customers. The primary functions of these operational resources located in these centers are customer service, conference production, network operation monitoring and remediation, and help desk technical support.

The Company also maintains Point-of Presence (POP) locations that house the technology and infrastructure along with the servers and database warehousing for the OpenVideo platform and support systems of the business. There are currently three POPs, two of which are located in the United States (Newark, New Jersey and Chicago, Illinois) and one in the United Kingdom (London), with additional POPs planned as needed. These carrier-neutral data centers are co-location facilities where network equipment that serves our video infrastructure is housed and acts as shared or dedicated infrastructure for our business customers. The POPs provide power redundancy and UPS (uninterrupted Power Supply) systems, which are constantly monitored and maintained. They also have physical security, flood controls, fire detection and suppression systems and are structurally designed for protection from earthquakes.

Network Services

In order to provide customers with access to the OpenVideo® cloud, Glowpoint maintains a dedicated video overlay network. We have partnered with Tier 1 MPLS providers to provide a global access footprint with flexible options to consume our suite of OpenVideo® services. Our OpenVideo® cloud is also connected to the Equinix Ethernet Carrier Exchange to provide native Layer 2 Ethernet services to enterprise customers.

Glowpoint leverages the last mile and network connectivity of carriers and provides an option for businesses to purchase a full overlay network for their video only needs. The network bandwidth that we provide for these dedicated overlay networks ranges from 1.5MBps to 1GBps. As a result of this, our network services business carries variable costs associated with the purchasing and reselling of this connectivity.

With our network services, we provide customers with the flexibility to either source the entire network from a single provider, maintain existing network and extend a logical connection to the OpenVideo® cloud or bring bandwidth to OpenVideo® datacenters. Although a declining component of our revenue stream, we believe that network services will continue to be an integral part of our revenue mix in the future, driven by new connectivity needs to connect and peer with Glowpoint's OpenVideo® cloud. However, Glowpoint does not consider this a core driver or measurement of its market share in the cloud and managed video service industry.

Affinity Public Video Suites

Affinity public video suites provide remote access to video communication services for everyday business meetings and events. Virtually all of Affinity's services are based on commonly used architecture that integrates traditional video technology with real-time, proprietary interactive web tools for scheduling and managing a customer's meeting experience. Our primary service includes scheduling and management of a highly orchestrated business-class meeting for users wishing to rent video conference centers across the world for a professional meeting experience. As part of the extended offering beyond the physical office suite, we also enable participants who elect to use a mobile device to join a video conference from anywhere in the world through the Affinity Anywhere service. These services are sold to businesses in various markets as well as to resellers of communications services, through direct and indirect sales channels. The services are largely usage-based, which generally means that our customers only pay for the services that they use. We also offer our customers monthly subscription rates based on a fixed number of concurrent users. In addition, through our distribution partners, we may also offer our services on a software license basis.

Professional and Other Services

We have bundled certain components of our managed services to offer video communication solutions for broadcast/media content acquisition and event services. Customers have used our managed video services during events to cost-effectively acquire video content for broadcasters, cable companies and other media enterprises, especially in the sports, news and entertainment industries. While it includes our core managed video services, IP-based broadcasting and event services require more project management and dedicated operational and engineering personnel than our standard subscription services. Rather than using an expensive satellite feed, companies can acquire broadcast-quality standard or high definition footage at a fraction of the cost from Glowpoint over a dedicated IP connection. In 2007, we launched a High Definition (HD) content acquisition solution that we branded TeamCamHD and RemoteCamHD. This offering provides two-way HD video communication for content acquisition from remote locations. Glowpoint now provides a full suite of HD solutions for the broadcast, entertainment and media industry and is considered a high-quality alternative to the traditional means of acquiring content in many applications, including interviews and even full motion video.